


To douse the flames

by cecilantro



Series: Lavender Skies [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 07:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13829007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: Molly and Fjord figure that water is the best thing for Caleb when he finds his brain aflame.There's some lavender oil involved.





	To douse the flames

Mollymauk slipped away from the celebrations in Alfield early, without attention, he just… disappeared. Fjord was the only one to seem to know he had left, though Nott’s eyes had trailed him around a corner and dismissed it as _Mollymauk_ . Circus freaks, after all, had a tendency for disappearing acts.   
She looked up at Caleb, to her left, instead. He stared ahead, empty, and she almost winced. She’d seen him hollow himself out only once or twice before, and never as bad as this. It must have been a horrific memory to do this, to scoop out Caleb’s wit like one would empty a pumpkin of its insides.   
  
She squeezed his hand a little.   
  
He did not react.   
  
The embers of the bonfire in the centre of the celebration were dying down when Fjord approached Caleb and Nott, the goblin falling asleep against Caleb’s leg every few minutes before jerking herself awake, and Caleb just. Staring. Into the red glow of the fire.   
  
“Nott, why don’t y’ leave Caleb here to me an’ Molly?” Fjord’s drawl was quiet, almost more of a rumble than a voice, and Nott shook her tired head quickly at him,   
  
“He needs me. I can’t leave him.”   
  
“I’ll take care of him, I promise.” Fjord smiled, “You deserve to celebrate, too. What you did was mighty brave, an’ you could’a been really hurt. Go have some fun with Jester an’ Beau, Molly an’ I will look after him.”   
  
Nott was tempted, and looked around for Molly, turning this way and that.   
  
“Where is Molly?”   
  
“He’s heatin’ some water, thought it was best to avoid the fire in the room with Caleb as he is.”   
  
Caleb’s head turned minutely at his name, but his empty gaze stayed on the fire. Fjord hadn’t even seen him blink.   
Nott studied Fjord for a moment longer, and then her eyes slid to Jester, waving brightly at her from a short ways off. Inviting her along.   
  
“Okay, you promise you’ll care for him?”   
  
“Promise.” Fjord nodded, and Nott nodded back, letting go of Caleb and slipping away with only one baleful glance over her shoulder. Fjord scooped Caleb up from his chair, and the wizard started as the spell of the bonfire broke from him,   
  
“Fjord?”   
  
“Hey, now,” Fjord soothed like he would a frightened animal, “Relax. Molly an’ I are lookin after you for the night.”   
  
“Nott…?” Caleb seemed to struggle to talk, and Fjord made a few shushing noises, gentle.   
  
“She’s with Jester, didn’t think you’d begrudge her a little fun an’ girl talk after the night we’ve had.”   
  
“No, no, of course not.” Caleb relaxed again, into Fjord’s grip, let himself be carried away.   
  
They arrived at a bathhouse, and that was where Fjord put him back on the floor. Caleb read the sign, dimly, and turned his confused expression to Fjord for only a moment before Molly came bounding out.   
  
“Ah, you’re here! I’d chide you for being late, but the water took longer to heat than I expected anyway.” he told them briskly, then turned and gestured at them to follow him in.   
  
“Why?” Caleb managed the single word as he trailed Molly, Fjord following behind, and he hoped the rest of his question would fall obvious to the two men.   
Molly looked over his shoulder at him and shrugged a little,   
  
“Well, your problem seems to be fire,” he told him casually, “We figured the opposite is water. Also, we should wash that arrow wound.” He gestured to the patch of blood on Caleb’s shirt, where the arrow had pierced all the way through his body. Jester was a magician for fixing that, Molly thought grimly.   
  
Neither he nor Fjord deigned to think about how bad it could have been.   
  
His friends led him into the room, and Caleb was surprised to see steam curling upwards lazily in the candle light.   
  
“I didn’t know Alfield supplied hot water.” he said, and Molly gave him a trademark smirk,   
  
“They don’t, I heated it specially.”   
  
This was enough to persuade Caleb to take his jacket off, and Fjord slipped it from his hands. At once, both Fjord and Molly were fussing over him, any clothing he deigned to remove was taken gently, and Fjord told him he was going to wash it, because if he got stabbed like that again it probably wasn’t a good idea to smush years of grime from a coat into an open wound. Caleb was somewhere between too tired and too hollow to argue.   
Molly sat him at the edge of the water, at first, and scooped gentle handfuls up to the stitches of the arrow wound, until Caleb grew tired and cold and instead slid his body into the water. Floating.   
  
After a minute of uneasy silence, save the _sploosh_ of Fjord rinsing his jacket, Caleb opened his eyes to blink at Molly.   
  
“You put in the work, Mollymauk, you should join me.”   
  
Molly studied him for a few moments, then gave a soft sigh,   
  
“Ah, I could do with washing anyway.” he conceded, “Fjord, will you be joining us?”   
  
Fjord looked over his shoulder from Caleb’s shirt, which he was rinsing with cold water to try to get rid of the blood.   
  
“Yeah, might as well. Be over in a second.” he replied, and returned to his work as Molly stripped his clothes, laying his coat and swords down carefully, then piling the remainder of his clothes messily on top. He slid into the water beside Caleb, and hummed contentedly.   
  
“Ah, I did a good job.” he said, to nobody in particular, though Caleb nodded as he sunk himself a little lower.   
Caleb sniffed.   
  
“I can still smell smoke.” The statement had such a hollow pang to it that it alarmed Molly, who turned his full attention to Caleb, studying him for a moment.   
  
“I hate to be so crass about it, but unwashed hair does tend to retain foul scents.”   
  
“‘Specially smoke.” Fjord chipped in helpfully, and Molly nodded. Caleb sighed, his shoulders dropping minutely. Molly moved toward him a few inches, unsure if the resistance was the water, or his own mind telling him this was a bad idea.   
  
“I could wash it for you.” He told Caleb, and the wizard’s eyes widened a fraction. Molly studied him in his silence, but couldn’t discern the specific emotion- surprise and fear looked so similar on Caleb’s unreadable face.   
  
“Caleb?” Fjord was apparently concerned by the silence that followed Molly’s offer, and Caleb shook himself a little. He looked to Fjord, then back to Molly. The tips of the tieflings fringe were wet, weighted and some sticking to the sides of his face. He met Molly’s eyes, or hoped he did, and saw trust in his expression.   
  
“Alright.” he conceded, then, “Yes. Please, Mollymauk.”   
Molly moved slowly, a hand to Caleb’s shoulder to move him away from the side of the bath, he settled himself between the cold tile and Caleb’s body. The wizard, despite the blood loss, was very warm. Molly’s breath threatened to catch as he pulled his hands from the water, cupped, and splashed it carefully down the back of Caleb’s head.   
  
Caleb flinched.   
  
Molly stilled, for the most part, moving only to press his palm against Caleb’s shoulder blade in comfort. At the other side of the room, Fjord stretched.   
  
“A’right, I’m done.” he told them, and Caleb’s attention was drawn from the water to the warlock as he wandered across the room.   
  
“Fjord, dear, could you go in my pocket and fetch my lavender oil? It’s in the top left inside pouch.” and he pressed gently on Caleb’s shoulder, “Lean back.”   
  
Caleb obeyed, letting the water take his weight from him. Fjord fumbled in Molly’s pockets for a few moments before retrieving the tiny bottle of pale brown-yellow liquid. He waved it, and the glass glinted against the candlelight.   
  
“Might want to switch that candle out for a new one, too.” Molly added as Fjord knelt to hand him the bottle, and Fjord nodded, shedding clothes with one hand as he lit the new candle with the other.   
  
When he spoke, Caleb’s voice was almost a hum, “How can you afford this?”   
  
“Molly an’ I thought y’ needed a break, so we both chipped in.” Fjord answered, and Caleb’s half-lidded gaze caught the hint of green skin as Fjord slid into the bath, too. Molly busied himself dribbling small amounts of water into Caleb’s hair, starting from the crown of his head and stroking to make it drain away from his face. Caleb looked up at him, almost straining to catch a glimpse of Mollymauk’s flash of lavender skin. Molly caught the spark of blue in the dark, and smiled, less his trademark smirk and more gentle. Instinctively, Molly leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, leaving Fjord to chuckle huskily.   
  
“Where’s mine?” he asked, and Molly rolled his eyes.   
  
“I’m busy, you’ll have to come to me.” and he used his thumbnail to uncork the vial of lavender oil, tipping a few careful drops into the fingers of his other hand. He placed the bottle gently on the side, and threaded the lavender oil with his finger through the strands of Caleb’s hair as Fjord drew up alongside him. Molly pushed onto his tiptoes to reach up and kiss his cheek.   
  
“I’ll hold the bottle.” Fjord offered, and Molly handed it to him.   
  
The three took time gently rubbing the oil through Caleb’s hair, and when finished, scrubbed themselves down in the runoff. The bath water took some time to cool, with three bodies in the small space keeping it warm far past its usual time.   
By one in the morning, Caleb found himself leaning against the side of the bath, almost dozing on his forearms as Molly ran his hands gently across his back, rubbing gently anywhere Caleb hummed at him to signify tension. Fjord leaned on the other side of the bath, watching them intently. Molly glanced over his shoulder and caught the yellow glow of Fjord’s gaze, piercing eyes reflecting the candle like a cat’s. It burnt low, almost a stump now, the only source of light other than the moon peeking through the window.   
  
“Alright over there?” Molly asked Fjord, tilting his fingers to stroke a knot loose in Caleb’s back. The wizard hissed in a mix of pain and relief.   
  
Fjord hummed, “Yeah, just watchin’ you work. Skilled, aren’t y’?”   
  
Molly chuckled darkly, “I’ve served my sentence treating the patrons of the Carnival.” another groan as Molly pressed the joint of his thumb into a spot just under Caleb’s shoulder blade and pushed.   
Fjord unfolded his arms and waded forward, laying a hand over Molly’s as the tiefling placed it back to Caleb’s shoulder.   
  
“As nice as I’m sure this is, th’ water’s startin’ to get a little chilly, an’ it’s late. We should head to bed, Caleb can barely keep his eyes open.”   
  
“‘M fine.” Caleb drawled from under Mollymauk, and Fjord tilted his head at Molly with raised eyebrows.   
  
“See?”   
  
“Ah, you’re right.” Molly sighed, and laid his free hand over Fjord’s, in a hand sandwich.   
(The thought occurred to Molly and he almost snickered.)   
  
There stretched a moment, that at any other time would have been uncomfortable, but at that time was almost… warm. Red eyes watched yellow, careful and calculating.   
Then Caleb hummed and broke the spell, and the three men huffed as they pulled themselves out of the water and retrieved the towels.   
  
“Let me.” Fjord reached to take Caleb’s towel as he struggled to stretch to pat his wound dry. Caleb handed it over, and let Fjord dab the water from his skin, surprisingly gentle for someone so large. Molly came to them soon after, and took to the task of drying their wizard, towelling Caleb’s hair as gently as he could manage, patting and stroking the water and remaining dirt from his face. Caleb swayed where he stood.   
  
“D’you want me to carry y’, Caleb?” Fjord offered, and Caleb gave a murmur that sounded like an acceptance, so Fjord and Molly rushed to dress, let Caleb sit against a sink whilst they collected his clothes.   
  
“Still damp.” Fjord commented, “Can’t put him in these, he’ll freeze.”   
  
“It’s fine.” Caleb mumbled, and Fjord shook his head though Caleb couldn’t see.   
  
“I concur,” Molly nodded to Fjord, “Give him your leggings, he can take my coat.”   
  
That had Fjord freezing.   
  
“Your coat?”   
  
“Yes, that’s what I said. Hand me your leggings.”   
  
Fjord obeyed without thinking, and Molly shrugged his coat off, made his way over to Caleb and began to dress him.   
  
“Come on, dear, leg up. Just a little higher- that’s it.” Fjord watched as Molly crouched beside Caleb and eased one leg at a time from the floor and into Fjord’s clothes. The warlock pulled himself into his scratchy pants and grimaced at the sensation, and as he pulled his shirt over his head, Molly finished pulling his own coat around Caleb’s shoulders. He finished by pressing a kiss to the damp red hair at Caleb’s temple, then turned his attention to Fjord, who wandered over,   
  
“You’ve been givin’ him more attention than me, I’m feelin’ a little left out.” he jested, and Molly tilted his head with a smile,   
  
“Now it’s your turn to give him some attention, I believe you promised him a lift.”   
  
“Ah, I did.” Fjord shook his head, unable to keep the smile from his face as he stooped to lift Caleb from the floor. The wizard hummed at him, and wriggled a little to cuddle closer to the warmth of Fjord’s chest. Molly slipped a hand into the crook of Fjord’s arm, leaned against his shoulder as they left.   
  
Behind them, the candle finally burned itself out.   
  
Caleb stirred in Fjord’s arms as they moved, gave a hum. The group stopped, just outside of the Feed ‘n’ Mead,   
  
“What’s that, dear?” Molly reached up with his free hand to stroke Caleb’s hair, and the wizard blinked his eyes open to look to Mollymauk, then to Fjord.   
  
“Love you.” he murmured, and then tucked his head back against Fjord again. Molly looked to Fjord in surprise, and found his emotions reflected in the yellow of Fjord’s eyes.   
  
“Love you too.” Molly said eventually, Fjord humming his agreement.   
  
Fjord tugged two of the beds together in their room, settled Caleb in between himself and Molly, and blinked affection to the tiefling once more before they slept.   
Molly tilted his chin, and pressed one more, sleepy kiss to Caleb’s forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> Hahaha im gay


End file.
